Using Abaqus to understand the orthotropic

material interactions that enable zero thermal

expansion laminates to be designed.
Colmar Wocke
The Dow Chemical Company, Bachtobelstrasse 3, CH-8810 Horgen, Switzerland

Abstract: Poissons ratio effects, to a large extent, control the thermal expansion characteristics of
angle-ply laminates. It is possible to design laminates, that have been manufactured from some
highly orthotropic laminae, to exhibit a zero coefficient of expansion along one of its directions,
even though none of the expansion coefficients of the laminae themselves are negative. It is often
mistakenly believed that at least one of the expansion coefficients has to be negative in order for
this effect to be achieved. However, it is the internal coupling of the individual expansion
coefficients via the very high laminate Poissons ratio that actually enables this. The paper
illustrates the effect via a simple Abaqus model and in so doing graphically cements the idea in the
minds of the FEM analyst.
.
Keywords: Abaqus, CTE, Thermal expansion, Orthotropic, Lamina.

1. Introduction
Because composite materials have properties that are not equal in all directions i.e. they are
anisotropic, they may be used very economically as load-bearing material in structures. This
economy of usage is achieved by aligning the principal material directions with the anticipated
principal loading directions within the structure. Engineers have become quite accustomed to
using these directional properties of the material to improve their designs. What is generally not
realized, is that the anisotropic nature of composites enable other design possibilities for these
materials that are not available with the more traditional materials. Engineers who have many
years experience in designing with composite materials still tend to think along traditional ways
and consequently are not aware of these other possibilities and the subtleties in effective design
with composites. One unique property of composites that is overlooked in this way is the wide
variation shown by Poissons ratio [1].
The ancient Egyptians realized that wood, a naturally occurring composite, could be made more
resistant to swelling and thermal expansion by suitably arranging individual laminae to form a
laminate [2]. It is possible to use this principle using modern, man-made fibres, to design
laminates that will exhibit extremely low coefficients of thermal expansion.
2013 SIMULIA Community Conference
www.3ds.com/simulia

In this paper, thermal expansion theory of laminates is reviewed and from this, the underlying
principle governing the attainment of zero thermal expansion of thin, balanced symmetric
composite laminates is developed. In so doing, the paper concentrates on extracting the
information from theory which is of use to one at the design, rather than the analysis stage; it
concentrates on highlighting the mechanism at work and to cement the idea, a very simple Abaqus
model is used. The purpose of the examples used to illustrate some design cases, is to leave a
mental picture of the interactions which need to be understood but which are so easily masked by
the theory.

2. Laminate thermal expansion theoretical background

The summary of the theory follows [2,3] beware of the slightly different notation used here for

a and that in [2] where it is A and also the potential confusion of a with a* in [2]. The
strain state within individual laminae is due to mechanical effects and expansion effects; for
the latter we consider only thermal expansion effects. The restrained expansion of such a lamina,
subject to a uniform temperature change, T is given by:

m T
Equation 1

where is a vector of thermal expansion coefficients. The stress state,

given by:

of such a lamina is

Q m T
Equation 2

where Q is the lamina plane stress stiffness matrix (symmetric) and

influence coefficients.

, a vector of thermal

We have:

Q11 1 Q12 2
Q12 1 Q22 2

Equation 3
2

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

Equation 3 represents the thermal influence coefficients in the material axis system; the
coefficients are the stress induced per unit temperature increase due to restrained thermal
expansion. They transform to the global directions similar to the way that the mechanical stresses
do. Because of symmetry, we may replace the terms lying below the diagonal by their mirror
terms, lying above the main diagonal we retain only the upper diagonal terms in the equations.
We have:

xy

m 2 Q11 1 Q12 2 n 2 Q12 1 Q22 2

n 2 Q11 1 Q12 2 m 2 Q12 1 Q22 2

mnQ Q mnQ Q
11 1
12 2
12 1
22 2

Equation 4

with

m cos and n sin and the positive direction of rotation is as shown in Figure 1.

yy
xy

xx

Figure 1 Lamina thermal influence coefficients.

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference
www.3ds.com/simulia

The lamina thermoelastic relations may be extended to laminates by considering a force and
moment balance, about a reference surface and applying Kirchoffs assumptions for thin plates as
is customarily done in Classical Lamination Theory (CLT):

N xy dz
M xy zdz
Equation 5
where the external
thermal effects:

N and M vectors

are forces and moments per unit width. Including

N Q 0 zkxy xy T dz
M Q 0 zkxy xy T zdz

Equation 6

where Q denotes the lamina plane stress stiffness in the global (transformed) direction,

is
0

the strain in the reference surface and k , the curvature; the xy-subscript denotes that these
quantities are to be in the global axis system since the external loading is in this axis system.
Rearranging:

N A 0 xy Bkxy N t
M B 0 xy Dkxy M t
Equation 7
where

N t xy Tdz
M t xy Tzdz
Equation 8

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

and

A,B,D Q1, z , z 2 dz
Equation 9
Now, for a uniform temperature change, T is constant and may be taken outside the integration
sign and for the case of a laminate composed of a number of discrete lamina, equation 8 becomes:

N t

M t

T xy z i z i 1
i

i 1

n
1
i
T xy z i2 z i21
2
i 1

Equation 10

The laminate free thermal expansion and curvature coefficient vectors, respectively, are defined as
follows:

xy

xy

xy k xy

1
T
1
T
Equation 11

Equation 11 may be solved, after suitable manipulations, to yield:

xy
xy

1
L1 1 BD1 M t N t
T
1
L2 1 BA1 N t M t

Equation 12

1 B and L2 D BA1 B .

with L1 A B D

Equation 12 represents the thermal expansion and curvature vectors for general laminates per
degree uniform thermal change i.t.o the thermoelastic description of the laminate only, since the
T terms cancel such general laminates will both expand/contract and curl/twist.
2013 SIMULIA Community Conference
www.3ds.com/simulia

3. Design principles of a balanced, symmetric laminate with zero

thermal expansion coefficient.
If the laminate is symmetrically-constructed about the reference plane from identical thickness
plies of the same material, then Equation 12 may be simplified, by virtue of no in-plane/bending

coupling and no thermal moment load (since B 0 , and

xy

xy i xy ), to:

1 1
A N t
T
Equation 13

So, such special-case balanced laminates undergo only thermal expansion with no curvature

1 is the laminate in-plane compliance matrix, a .

changes. The matrix A

We want one of the thermal expansion coefficients of the laminate to be zero (say that along the xaxis). Examination of equation 13 shows the factors influencing this are the laminate compliance
and the thermal load vector per unit temperature increase. We have:

x
a11
1
y
a12
T a
16
xy

a12
a 22
a 26

a16 N x

a 26 N y
a66 N xy

Equation 14
Substituting from equation 10 for the thermal load vector and putting
n

x = 0, one obtains:

a11 m 2 i1 n 2 i 2 hi a12 n 2 i1 m 2 i 2 hi a16 mn i1 nm i 2 hi 0

i 1

i 1

i 1

Equation 15
One way of easily achieving this, is to make

a16 a26 0 by arranging the laminae in

alternating positive and negative ply angle pairs i.e. making it balanced. Substituting for the
trigonometric identity n 1 m and noting that the thickness,
2

is equal we have

hi ( zi zi 1 ) of every ply

hi h giving:

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

a11 m 2 i1 1 m 2 i 2 a12 1 m 2 i1 m 2 i 2
i 1

i 1

Equation 16
Examination of equation 16 shows that the number of plies required at each orientation in the

i 1 and i 2 i.e. this determines the weighting

i
i
i
of each ply. If 1 r 2 and by virtue of all then another simplification gives:
laminate will depend on the relative magnitudes of

a11 m 2 r 1 m 2
i 1

a 1 m r m
n

i 1

12

Equation 17
Note that it is not simply the ratio of the terms between the thermal influence coefficients which is
important, but this ratio r weighted with the laminate compliance terms. The laminate compliance
is in itself a function of the individual lamination angles and total number of laminae. It is not easy
to intuitively arrange the lamination scheme so that equation 17 is satisfied, as we have one
equation and a multitude of solutions for each mi . One possible solution to the problem is to
constrain all the laminae to have the same lamination angle

and then equation 17 reduces to:

a11 m 2 r m 2 1 a12 m 2 r m 2 r

Equation 18

In general, the compliance terms are given by:

2
a11 A22 A66 A26

1A ,a

12

A16 A26 A12 A66

1
A
Equation 19

Since the laminate consists of many laminae i.e is balanced, the in-plane direct strain to shear
strain coupling terms disappear and equation 18 may be rearranged as:

A22 m 2 r m 2 r

A12
m2r m2 1
Equation 20
2013 SIMULIA Community Conference
www.3ds.com/simulia

This is just the inverse of the laminate major Poissons ratio and so, the equation to be satisfied is:

xy

m2r m2 1
m2r m2 r
Equation 21

Equation 21 reinforces the idea that the attainment of a zero coefficient of thermal expansion is
dependent on both laminate design (via the lamination angles and thicknesses of the plies) and on
the correct choice of lamina materials. A similar expression results for the case where thermal
expansion along the y-axis is zero.

4. An Abaqus model to illustrate the principle

We create a simple, single element model of unit planar dimensions with which to illustrate the
points made earlier. A linear interpolation function i.e. 4-noded shell element is used, which
makes all displacements linear and thus easy to interpret; boundary conditions are such to give
only planar response. To compute the effective Poissons ratio, the model is given a unit
displacement on the edge defined by the elements 2- and 3-nodes; the Poissons ratio is then
simply the negative of the displacement in the y-direction. To compute the thermal expansion
coefficient, a unit temperature rise is given for all the nodes; the CTE, along the x-axis, is then the
displacement in the x-direction; we use a script file, reproduced below, to drive the analysis. In the
main input files, T300_Narmco.inp and T300_Narmco_CTE.inp, only the step definitions differ.
##
## Python Scripting to combine the results of the Poisson/CTE analyses
##
## Create the parametric study
##
##angle_variable = ParStudy(par='angle', name='T300_Narmco')
angle_variable = ParStudy(par='angle', name='T300_Narmco_CTE')
angle_variable.define(CONTINUOUS, par='angle', domain=(0., 90.))
angle_variable.sample(NUMBER, par='angle', number=31)
angle_variable.combine(MESH)
##
## Generate a number of input files, with a different angle in every case and
execute them
##
##angle_variable.generate(template='T300_Narmco')
angle_variable.generate(template='T300_Narmco_CTE')
angle_variable.execute(ALL)
##
## Where to find the data
##

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

angle_variable.output(file=ODB, step=1, inc=LAST)

##
## What to combine i.e to gather and then where to send it for tabular output
##
angle_variable.gather(results='n3_u', variable='U', node=3, step=1)
##angle_variable.report(XYPLOT,par='angle', results=('n3_u.2'),file="Poisson.txt")
angle_variable.report(XYPLOT, par='angle', results=('n3_u.1'),file="CTE.txt")
##

Figure 2 Single element, showing fibre direction aligned at 24.9 to x-direction, for
maximum Poisson-effect in T300/5208 laminate.

4.1

Abaqus model-definition keywords

*heading
Simple problem to check orthotropic behaviour
*parameter
**angle = 24.9
angle = 1.91
minus_angle = -1.0*angle
*node,nset = all_nodes
1,0.0,0.0
2,1.0,0.0
3,1.0,1.0

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

4,0.0,1.0
*nset,nset = node_3
3
*material, name = T300_Narmco_5208
*elastic,type = lamina
181.0E9,10.3E9,0.28,7.17E9,5.0E9,5.0E9
*expansion,type = ortho
0.02E-06,22.5E-06,22.5E-06
*element,type = s4r,elset = shell
1,1,2,3,4
*shell section,elset = shell,composite
0.5E-03, ,T300_Narmco_5208,angle
0.5E-03, ,T300_Narmco_5208,minus_angle
*orientation,name = angle,definition = offset to nodes
2,4,1
3,<angle>
*orientation,name = minus_angle,definition = offset to nodes
2,4,1
3,<minus_angle>
*boundary
all_nodes,3,6,0.0
**
1,1,2,0.0
4,1,1,0.0

4.2

Abaqus step-definition for computing Poissons ratio

*step
Composite laminate analysis - single element, defined displacement
*static
0.1,1.0
*boundary
2,1,1,1.0
3,1,1,1.0
*output,field
*node output,variable = preselect
*end step

4.3

Abaqus step-definition for computing expansion

*step
Composite laminate analysis - single element, unit temperature change
*static
0.1,1.0
*temperature
all_nodes,1.0
*output,field
*node output,variable = preselect
*end step

10

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

4.4

Results

To illustrate the dependence of the thermal expansion coefficient on elastic moduli, four balancedsymmetric laminates designed from carbon fibre, aramid fibre, glass fibre and boron fibre
embedded in an epoxy matrix are considered. The thermoelastic constants for the four materials
appearing in Table 1 are taken from Tsai [4], with r being computed from these tabulated
properties.

The left and right sides of equation 21 are plotted as separate curves for each of these laminates in
turn in figures 3 to 6 [5]. Any points where these curves intersect represent solutions to the zero
coefficient of thermal expansion laminate problem (along the x-axis).
The T300/5208 laminate has two solutions viz. at 1.91 at 41.71 . The Kevlar/epoxy
laminate has only one solution at 43.93 . These laminates have very similar Poissons ratios
around 40 but widely differing values of r due to the negative coefficient of thermal
expansion of the Kevlar/epoxy along the fibre direction. So, in spite of this large difference in
driving thermal load, both of these laminates are able to generate no strain along the x-axis. This is
because their thermoelastic coefficients enable their respective Poissons ratios to have a large
enough range to achieve a balance with the thermal load according to equation 21.
Examination of Figure 4 shows that for the case of Kevlar/epoxy, the ratio of the driving thermal
load in the global direction asymptotes at 58.14 . At this point, the thermal influence
coefficients in the material axis system resolve to only the x-direction.
The glass/epoxy laminate does not have any solution at all because the lamina is not orthotropic
enough to generate an appreciable Poisson effect when an off-axis laminate is constructed as
shown in Fig 5. The B/5505 laminate is also not capable of producing a solution, although it
comes very close as can be seen in Fig 6. A small reduction in the transverse stiffness of the latter
material will indeed enable a zero coefficient of thermal expansion to be achieved.

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

11

Table 1 Representative materials thermoelastic constants.

T300/5208

K49/epoxy

Glass/epoxy

B/5505

181

76

38.6

204

10.3

5.5

8.27

18.5

12

0.28

0.34

0.26

0.23

G12, GPa

7.17

2.3

4.14

5.59

2.00E-08

-4.00E-06

8.60E-06

6.10E-06

2.25E-05

7.90E-05

2.21E-05

3.03E-05

0.2958

-0.3651

1.886

2.341

E11, GPa
E 22, GPa

1
2 , /C
, /C

Figure 3 Laminate thermoelastic interaction diagram for T300/5208.

12

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

Figure 4 Laminate thermoelastic interaction diagram for Kevlar/epoxy, asymptote

at 58.14 .

Figure 5 Laminate thermoelastic interaction diagram for Glass/epoxy.

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference
www.3ds.com/simulia

13

Figure 6 Laminate thermoelastic interaction diagram for B/5505.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The large differences in stiffness along the principal material directions of typically available
composite laminae are primarily responsible for allowing one to tailor the thermal expansion
characteristics of balanced, symmetric angle-ply laminates. Materials such as these, enable one to
design laminates that have their Poissons ratio matched to the driving thermal load.
It is possible to specify a lamina material with elastic constants that do indeed allow a large range
of Poissons ratio but whose thermal expansion characteristics are such that the match between
Poissons ratio and driving thermal load cannot be achieved, as in the case of B/5505. So, the
thermal expansion characteristics do play a role, but for lamina materials commonly available, it is
a secondary one as can be verified from the numerical example results of Kevlar/epoxy and
T300/5208.
The simple examples in the text have attempted to cement the basic ideas of the interactions that
occur. Of course, in 3-dimensional cases that cannot be regarded analytically as a plane stress
laminate, the full 3-dimensional elasticity equations are to be used. The ideas are generallyapplicable, but in the general case using the full equations, the central lesson is lost and the
designer/analyst does not gain an understanding of the internal mechanisms at work.
14

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

6. References
1. Miki, M and Murotsu Y, The Peculiar Behaviour of the Poissons Ratio of Laminated
Fibrous Composites, JSME International Journal, Series I, Vol. 32, No 1, 1989.
2. Herakovitch, Carl T. Mechanics of Fibrous Composites, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-47110636-4.
3. Engineered Materials Handbook, Vol 1: Composites, ASM International, Metals Park, Ohio,
ISBN 0-87170-279-7, p224-p226.
4. Tsai, S.W. Composites Design, 4th edition, Think Composites, Dayton, Ohio, ISBN 09618090-2-7, Appendix B.
5. Wocke, C.P. The Factors Dominating the Expansion Characteristics of Composite
Laminates, SACAM96, 1st South African Conference on Applied Mechanics, July 1996,
Pretoria, South Africa.

2013 SIMULIA Community Conference

www.3ds.com/simulia

15